A dialog box is a temporary window an application creates to retrieve user input. An application typically uses dialog boxes to prompt the user for additional information for menu items. A dialog box usually contains one or more controls (child windows) with which the user enters text, chooses options, or directs the action.

Windows also provides predefined dialog boxes that support common menu items such as Open and Print. Applications that use these menu items should use the common dialog boxes to prompt for this user input, regardless of the type of application.

Creates a modeless dialog box from a dialog box template in memory. Before displaying the dialog box, the function passes an application-defined value to the dialog box procedure as the lParam parameter of the
WM_INITDIALOG message. An application can use this value to initialize dialog box controls.

Creates a modeless dialog box from a dialog box template resource. Before displaying the dialog box, the function passes an application-defined value to the dialog box procedure as the lParam parameter of the
WM_INITDIALOG message. An application can use this value to initialize dialog box controls.

Creates a modal dialog box from a dialog box template resource.
DialogBox does not return control until the specified callback function terminates the modal dialog box by calling the
EndDialog function.

Creates a modal dialog box from a dialog box template in memory.
DialogBoxIndirect does not return control until the specified callback function terminates the modal dialog box by calling the
EndDialog function.

Creates a modal dialog box from a dialog box template in memory. Before displaying the dialog box, the function passes an application-defined value to the dialog box procedure as the lParam parameter of the
WM_INITDIALOG message. An application can use this value to initialize dialog box controls.

Creates a modal dialog box from a dialog box template resource. Before displaying the dialog box, the function passes an application-defined value to the dialog box procedure as the lParam parameter of the
WM_INITDIALOG message. An application can use this value to initialize dialog box controls.

An application-defined callback function used with the
CreateDialog and
DialogBox families of functions. It processes messages sent to a modal or modeless dialog box. The DLGPROC type defines a pointer to this callback function.
DialogProc is a placeholder for the application-defined function name.

Retrieves the system's dialog base units, which are the average width and height of characters in the system font. For dialog boxes that use the system font, you can use these values to convert between dialog template units, as specified in dialog box templates, and pixels. For dialog boxes that do not use the system font, the conversion from dialog template units to pixels depends on the font used by the dialog box.

Converts the specified dialog box units to screen units (pixels). The function replaces the coordinates in the specified
RECT structure with the converted coordinates, which allows the structure to be used to create a dialog box or position a control within a dialog box.

Displays a modal dialog box that contains a system icon, a set of buttons, and a brief application-specific message, such as status or error information. The message box returns an integer value that indicates which button the user clicked.

Creates, displays, and operates a message box. The message box contains an application-defined message and title, plus any combination of predefined icons and push buttons. The buttons are in the language of the system user interface.

Sent to the owner window of a modal dialog box or menu that is entering an idle state. A modal dialog box or menu enters an idle state when no messages are waiting in its queue after it has processed one or more previous messages.

Sent to the window procedure associated with a control. By default, the system handles all keyboard input to the control; the system interprets certain types of keyboard input as dialog box navigation keys. To override this default behavior, the control can respond to the
WM_GETDLGCODE message to indicate the types of input it wants to process itself.

Sent to the dialog box procedure immediately before a dialog box is displayed. Dialog box procedures typically use this message to initialize controls and carry out any other initialization tasks that affect the appearance of the dialog box.

Defines the dimensions and style of a dialog box. This structure, always the first in a standard template for a dialog box, also specifies the number of controls in the dialog box and therefore specifies the number of subsequent
DLGITEMTEMPLATE structures in the template.

An extended dialog box template begins with a DLGTEMPLATEEX header that describes the dialog box and specifies the number of controls in the dialog box. For each control in a dialog box, an extended dialog box template has a block of data that uses the
DLGITEMTEMPLATEEX format to describe the control.